Urban Development NBS Specialist (Technical Advisor I)

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

CRS Philippines, established in 1945, is the longest running, continuous CRS country program in the world with extensive programming in emergency response, early recovery and disaster risk reduction, climate resilience and peace governance. The Philippines country program has over 55 staff members in Manila, Davao, and Cotabato City offices. CRS Philippines is committed to collaborating with our strong network of church partners, national and subnational government agencies and secular NGOs throughout the country.

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues in Urban Development in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ Urban Resilience programming is across the globe.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Support the development and contribute to the implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools and best practices in Urban Development and Resilience that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions to CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools and M&E, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
• Contribute to, and in some cases lead, the development of the technical design for proposals. Support the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of project concepts and full-fledged proposals. As needed, act as a technical writer on proposal development teams. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in Urban Development and Resilience programming for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conduct trainings and workshops, and coaching.
• Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the Urban Resilience learning agenda.
• Contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, participate in forums in Urban Development and Resilience to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
• Develop Climate Finance proposals as needed by the CRC project.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in urban development, or Environmental Management, Nature-based Solutions, or similar fields <field(s) related to Climate Resilience. required.
• Minimum of three years’ relevant work experience with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years’ relevant field-based experience in Climate Resilience and urban development
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Urban Development and Resilience. General knowledge of other related disciplines such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in project design and proposal development. Experience in writing content for proposals.
• Knowledge of capacity strengthens best practices.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation and analysis.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.

Required Languages - English proficiency in speaking and writing. Working knowledge in Filipino. Other dialects such as Bisaya or Hiligaynon is advantageous.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 30 %.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment
• Good technical writing skills
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Key Working Relationships: Internal: Program Manager, City Coordinators; External: DENR, CCC, City LGUs.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship